A five-year-old girl in China's Qingdao found a bundle of 50,000 yuan (around Rs 6.3 lakh) in paper money and cut the figure of Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China, from all notes.
While playing in her Qingdao home in Shandong Province, the young girl had no idea about the value of the paper in her hands, according to a China Travels post on Instagram. She used scissors and cut the notes as part of what she likely imagined to be an arts-and-crafts activity.
By the time her father returned home, the initially flawless currencies were no longer recognisable as legal tender.
Mao Zedong's neatly cut images, depicted on all contemporary Chinese yuan notes, were found separated from the rest of the paper, leaving behind shredded fragments that authorities claim will be challenging to put back together.
The girl and her family's identities have not been made public. The father had reportedly concealed the money at home, perhaps as savings or emergency funds, and did not expect to find it in such a state.
Tiny pieces of the currency were strewn all over the floor, and several significant portions, including the famous image, were entirely destroyed during the initial attempts to reassemble it.
Online reactions to the unusual mishap have been mixed. Some social media users remarked at the child's neatness despite her young age and expressed delight at how precisely she cut out the photos.
One user commented, “Good cutting skills for a 5 year old... honestly.”
“Nice cutting… being 5 years old she cut the picture perfectly,” a second comment read.
“She did a good job actually with the scissors tho,” said another.
Others questioned the authenticity of the widely circulated videos and posts, claiming that it was unrealistic for a little child to do such meticulous cutting on so many banknotes.
“Something tells me a 5 yo didn't do that 500 times,” read one comment.
“Means 500 bills, I doubt that,” said one.
China's central bank usually allows damaged currency to be exchanged for new notes if sufficient portions of the original bill remain, but severe damage, such as complete portrait removal, complicates eligibility. The likelihood of receiving full payment in this instance remains unclear.
